Saturday, September 22, 2012

Unanswered Questions

When I do a presentation, I usually ask everyone before I start whether or not they have any questions about the known or unknown universe. Occasionally, I will get a question or two but usually everyone just sits there and stares. They are likely weighing my sanity. But often I explain that I always have questions and here are some of the ones that I cannot answer (or have not yet answered).

[Disclaimer: Some of these questions are not serious, but some of them are]

1. If genealogy can be learned in five minutes, why are there 25 five-minute-episodes so far in FamilySearch.org's Learning Center?

2. Which of Adam's children are you descended from? Can you document your sources?

3. If 2.7 percent of the members do genealogy in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where are the other 2.6 percent?

5. If all the courthouses in America burned down, would we all have to stop doing genealogy?

6. Where is Waldo? And who were his parents?

7. Will the only free records on the Internet all end up in FamilySearch.org?

8. If the only people doing genealogy are 55 year old or older, white, educated women, what am I doing here?

9. If genealogy is so fun, why does my head ache?

10. Why did so many immigrants change their names when they came to America? Have you read anything about Arizona in the newspapers (or online) recently?

11. How long will it be until I no longer hear, "I don't have any computer skills?"

12. Why do more people do genealogy in the Winter than in the Summer?

That's probably enough questions for one day. I am sure that some of these are really obscure and will need further explanation. But, none will be forthcoming. Then again, I might comment on some of them. I'll have to think about it. As the judges used to say to me all the time, I'll take it under advisement and get back to you.